ANI MAL CLASSIFICATION— TAXONOMY 75 



cal Nomenclature has ruled that no name given prior to 1758 shall be 

 recognized — this eliminates the confusion caused by the fact that different 

 methods and different names were used in the different countries before 

 this date. In case two different names have been given to the same animal, 

 this code provides a law of priority. This law states that the first name 

 proposed for an animal during or after 1758 shall be considered the official 

 name, provided the proper conditions of publication have been observed. 

 A universal, efficient means of naming and arranging living things was the 

 great contribution of Linnaeus. 



Plant Lije, Swingle, D. Van Nostrand Co., Inc. 

 Fig. 6.1. Linnaeus, the great Swedish naturalist who originated our modern method 



of classification of living things. 



It is impossible to study any branch of zoology without including some 

 taxonomy, for taxonomy is the biological way of naming things and, just 

 as it is difficult to talk about people without calling their names, it is difficult 

 to talk about any phase of zoology without using the names of the animals 

 under consideration. Many beginning students shudder when they look 

 at the bewildering array of four and five syllable words with Latin endings 

 that greet them within the pages of a zoology textbook. Studied intelli- 

 gently, however, these words may be easier to learn than short three or 

 four letter words, because scientific words have meanings and are usually 

 formed by combinations of shorter words that refer to some characteristics 

 of the animals under consideration. The word Nemathelmirithes comes 

 from two Greek words, nema, meaning thread, and helm ins, meaning worm, 

 and it is used in referring to a group of worms that are slender and thread- 



